The Democratic Party seeks answers

DCCC letter and survey sent to me

MINNEAPOLIS- Call me, maybe?

This time, it isn’t the University of Minnesota Alumni Association wanting to know my opinion of the organization while I donate to the cause. Last week, it was the national Democratic Party, taking opinions on what is important right now and how to stop President Donald Trump’s agenda.

The letter and survey the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) sent includes a reading of the Trump presidency so far from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The Democratic leader laments the Republican efforts so far to remove Obama Care, weaken Wall Street financial reform, and enact tax cuts that are obviously meant for the wealthiest families in the United States.

So far, so good.

The Democratic Party leader shows the reason of the letter and survey by stating:

“But, I need you to join us. That’s why I’ve included you in a select group of local Democratic Party leaders who are participating in our Official 2018 Democratic Priorities Survey”.

Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi

For the record, I’m not a local Democratic Party leader. I don’t attend precinct meetings and haven’t actively donated or volunteered since the 2016 Minnesota caucus.

But whatevs! The Democratic Party is finally asking us party members to weigh in on the direction of the party. This is as good as the time when they listened to voters in 2016 by selecting the candidate most likely to defeat Donald Trump in the general election, right?

Right?

The Survey

The survey has three parts: Part One goes straight to the wallet. The DCCC asks for contributions to “protect House Democrats against Republican attacks and win a Democratic House Majority in 2018”.

In Part One, it’s also noted that my financial contributions will be matched “dollar-for-dollar by a generous group of Democrats”.

Hey, that sounds pretty generous. It’s like a date matching my movie ticket at AMC-Roseville dollar-by-dollar ‘til we get to that inevitable $30. But dates usually aren’t corporate donors contributing millions upon millions to a small group of Democratic Party consultants.

But I digress. Part Two asks what “values and ideals” I hold in importance, ranked 1-8. To me, they seemed overly broad, but I know the new Democratic Party leader is big on values. 

“Fairness”! “Truth”! “Security”! “Community”!

A Reddit meme featuring DNC Chair Tom Perez. He beat Keith Ellison, a Minnesota congressman, 235-200 in the February election.

I was waiting to read the values of “removing corporate funding of the DNC”; “eliminating super delegates completely from the process”; and “acknowledging the revelations of former Chair Donna Brazile in order to begin reconciliation with disaffected Democrats” but those values must have missed the final cut of the survey.

I’ll happily await that next survey!

Part Three is entitled “Accountability and Transparency in the Trump Administration”. As we know, the current President is up to his cuff links in scandals both financial and political, so no need to rehash here.

Part Four of the survey asks which issues are most important for Democrats to fight on. There are about a dozen issues needing to be ranked, including strengthening and expanding social security and Medicare; reducing gun violence; overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision; and raising the minimum wage.

Oddly enough, this section didn’t include removing corporate funding from the Democratic Party and supporting small individual contributions for candidates either… strange.

With Part Five asking for personal information, the final section is an additional comments section. I’ll have to condense it down to fit the survey space, but I’ll share my raw thoughts here. Enjoy!

And those out there that also received a similar letter from the DCCC, share on social media. I love hearing other voter opinions, the Democratic Party itself needs to hear, and we don’t want money for your speech out here in the real world.

My Take

“Hello. I’ve observed the Democratic Party lose ¾ national elections during President Obama’s two terms. The party has also lost roughly 1,000 state legislature seats during this time. This has translated to the national Democrats losing the House of Representatives, the Senate, the White House, and effective control of the Supreme Court. All of this happened while millions of working individuals and families donated hard earned money and time to the party. So you’ll have to excuse my refusal to financially contribute more money at this time.

As the DCCC, you say in the letter and survey that you are very interested in combating the President’s agenda and strengthening the party. Is that really possible by continuing down the path of using voters’ donations and contributions to pay consultants and pollsters to lose national elections? Is it possible when the Democratic Party seems more interested in verbally scoring wins over the President instead of listening to the will and core of the party by addressing vital issues?

I had a chance to respond by letter to the DCCC survey. Will they take in my thoughts?

This letter and survey included important “values” and “priorities” but strangely missing

were:

-Pushing the DNC to eliminate super delegates in presidential primaries.

-Pushing the DNC to also open up voting to registered independent voters on the state level.

-Moving away from corporate and large-donor contributions towards small and individual financial voter support. As the Sanders campaign of 2016 and recent state-level Democratic candidates have shown in 2017, listening to and gaining financial backing from voters exclusively produces far better enthusiasm and results than from large corporations and deep-pocketed funders.

-Instead of “protecting the Affordable Care Act”, a better priority is the obvious solution of a national single-payer healthcare system.

-Tying the national minimum wage to inflation and setting it at a living wage amount of $15 is a great start. Why wasn’t this an option in your survey?

With due respect Congresswoman Pelosi, it’s time for the next generation of Democratic voters to assist the Party. You and other members of leadership are no longer in tune with the life experiences of the majority of Democratic voters across the country, and the party itself needs to become more representative. Great candidates are running and winning offices within the party and at state-level government positions throughout the country under the Democratic Party label, but you and others at the top need to make room for others. Only then will voters and Democratic Party members have the faith the party is listening to them, and will avoid a repeat of 2016 in 2020.”

-Forrester Pack